Braiders Aren’t Barbers:

Watch IJ's video, "Handcuffed hairbraider sues in federal court for right to teach"

Austin, Texas—Should African hairbraiders have to build an entire barber college and become barbering instructors just to teach hairbraiding?

That is the question to be answered by a federal lawsuit filed today against Texas by Dallas entrepreneur Isis Brantley and the Institute for Justice. A victory could promote economic liberty throughout Texas and beyond.

Isis Brantley is one of the country’s leading African hairbraiders. She works with everyone from Grammy Award-winning artist Erykah Badu to the homeless. But Texas will not permit Isis to teach hairbraiding for a living unless she spends 750 hours in barber school, passes four exams that do not teach braiding, and spends thousands of dollars on tuition and a fully-equipped barber college she doesn’t need. Tellingly, Texas will waive all these regulations if Isis goes to work for an existing barber school and teaches hairbraiding for them.

“Texas has no problem with Isis teaching, it just has a problem with her working for herself,” said Attorney Arif Panju of the Institute for Justice. “Braiders aren’t barbers, and braiding instructors should not be forced to build barber schools and take classes from barbers.”

Isis is no stranger to fighting for economic liberty. In 1997, seven government officials raided her business and hauled her off in handcuffs for braiding hair without a special government license. Isis had the law changed in 2007, but Texas officials simply wedged hairbraiding into the state’s barbering statute, allowing her to braid hair while making it nearly impossible for her to teach hairbraiding for a living.

“Isis wants to teach the next generation of African hairbraiders,” said IJ Texas Executive Director Matt Miller. “The quality of Isis’s teaching does not depend on whether she is standing next to a short-haired mannequin or a pile of barbering textbooks.”